Jan 24, 2013

The FSW, the kick and the wuss

Chelsea went to Wales with the aim of overturning a two goal deficit, thanks to Branislav Ivanovic two weeks earlier. With immense pressure from the fans, and perhaps the owner as well, Rafa Benitez, the interim manager of Chelsea, fondly known as the Fat Spanish Waiter, decided to start new signing Demba Ba a start over the misfiring Torres. Having lost just three home matches in the season so far, it was a well known fact that winning by three goals away at Swansea, let alone winning, was going to difficult, if not impossible.
Chelsea started off poorly, shooting at every other opportunity and wasted a good twenty minutes in getting into the game properly. It would have been game over pretty early had Petr Cech not been at his best. Demba Ba was denied a penalty, but was guilty of overreacting, nonetheless. The best chance for Chelsea was perhaps at the stroke of half time, as Ba hit it well above the bar (the Torres effect maybe?) The last 5 minutes leading to half time were encouraging, but the Swans had defended pretty well.

The second half started with Swansea playing far better than the last few minutes of the first. With over an hour gone, FSW decided to make a great substitution- Luiz on for Ivanovic. His eventual substitutions of Torres for Oscar, and Bertrand for Cole made no sense either, when you require two goals desperately. This means that either Rafa is a genius that no one understands, or he is incredibly stupid with absolutely no understanding of the game.

The match would have been pretty dull had something like this not happened. Hazard got sent off for kicking a ball boy. That is the gist of it, but there is far more to it. With 12 minutes remaining on the clock, the ball boy grabbed on to the ball, which was inches away from Hazard's feet as if he was the goalkeeper and it was the world cup final. Not defending Hazard, he eventually lost his cool, and (accidentally) kicked him while trying to kick the ball from beneath him. Here is a gif showing the same.

A closer look at the kick.

Yes, it might look like he kicked him, but it was certainly nothing compared to Cantona's scissors kick! The ball boy was no angel either. He was guilty of wasting time at such a crucial moment. It was a red card, no doubt, but the ball boy must not be portrayed as an innocent victim. Here's why! Take a look at this screenshot of his tweet just before the game.

And that kick was not enough for an expression that can make even Sergio Busquets seem like an amateur.

Come on, a little kid can withstand more pain. It was so exaggerated that even a police complaint was made! Quoting Sky News,

South Wales Police said they have spoken to 17-year-old Charlie Morgan - who did not suffer any injuries - and his father, a Swansea club director, and no complaint has been made.

Both of them are to blame, but all this would have been avoided had the ball boy simply done his job- hand over the ball to Hazard and not cover it with his body, as if protecting the most priceless of treasures from the fiercest of pirates!

UPDATE: New camera angle shows Hazard DID kick the ball. That ball boy is a bloody Busquets.

Here are the thoughts of the footballing world on the matter:

Noel Hunt (Reading) : 'I kick the ball from under my niece like that and she starts laughing she's only 2!'

Luke Shaw (Southampton) : 'He never kicked him! He went to get the ball as I'm sure any other person in that situation would do the same thing.'

Michael Owen (Stoke City) : 'Not having Hazard tried to hurt him though. He just tried to toe poke it out of his grip.'

Steven Pienaar (Everton) : 'I'm not saying that it's the correct thing to do, but when in the heat of the moment you just want the ball.'

Gareth Bale (Tottenham) : 'Unbelievable decision by the referee to send Hazard off but congrats to Swansea.'